It is common practice to provide watches with a solar cell in order to power the electronic movement. The solar cell is generally disposed on the periphery of the dial beneath the crystal, or may replace the dial to absorb maximum light. There are also alternatives, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 8,693,290 and EP Patent 2796946, wherein the solar cell is positioned under the dial which is made of a transparent or translucent resin.
In such configurations, the watch movement is obscured by the dial or by the solar cell, which is incompatible with so-called skeleton watches, since the latter do not generally include a solid dial and expose all or part of their constituent components. Indeed, in such case, keeping the elements visible is incompatible with a solar cell arrangement, since the cell must also be visible to absorb light and generate sufficient energy to power a quartz movement.